Hydrala's Atonement
by Christophine
Summary: Or Leonardo's Cleansing. As an apology, Hydrala offers Leo an opportunity no outsider has ever received from the Daagon. Set after "The Cosmic Ocean".


Hydrala's Atonement

Hydrala's eyes never left the leader terrapin.

While guards loaded the black hole generator into the foreigners' ship, Hydrala scrutinized the earthling mutant with more care than originally granted. She hadn't paid the slightest attention to the group when they first arrived. The Daagon honored age and wisdom above even the celestial beauty of their world. Youth, pure though it might be, meant little until experience taught it strength and mystery of the deep. These children, she had believed firmly on first sight, knew nothing of the expanse of the universe. The Utrom had deceived themselves if they thought she would accept otherwise.

Lord Dregg's attack on her palace humbled her opinion. The children had fought far greater than any seasoned warrior in her courts could manage, and while weapons and skill did not a wise creature make, even she could accept that she had misjudged them. She had mistaken their youth for ignorance.

It was a slight she would not allow to pass.

Even now as she watched the blue clad leader speak with his team and oversee the ship preparations, she recalled her harsh words on worth and youth. Of all of the strangers he had them to heart. His head had fallen before her, his voice trembled with earnestness as he pleaded for her to reconsider. Hydrala, bearing the heavy weight the Utrom had laid on her, was only grateful that she had tested him before surrendering her duty to such an insufficient child.

Her own worth had been tested, too, that day. Just moments later she found herself relying on the very strength she had dismissed when Leonardo came between her and inevitable death. No, she hadn't changed her mind about the differences between age and youth, but she had changed her mind about the worth of the young earthlings.

She wanted to do something to encourage them before they left her realm.

"Come," she announced, when the ship had been loaded and inspected, "Dine with us before you depart." The invitation was well accepted as they followed her into one of the great dining halls. At her order the table was stacked high with her own favorite dishes, bright and sweet in their raw flavors. The food- delicacies among her people-caused some consternation for her guests, but each ate gingerly, if not with gusto like the orange masked terrapin. Hydrala took comfort in seeing them well fed.

The blue clad leader, Leonardo, however, picked at the plate offered him. He shook his head at his friends' coaxing and lay back in his chair, shoulders drooping under an unseen weight. Hydrala lost interest in her own meal as she observed the heaviness in his eyes. Food was not enough then, she realized with dismay. There was another weariness at work in him. The battle was over and won, yet with each passing minute he drifted farther into himself; mind and soul were not one.

The mind Hydrala could do little about, but the soul she suddenly realized she might be able to soothe. If he did not object…

"You are all weary, I see. Rest here awhile, if you will," she murmured, as leisurely as she could manage in her eagerness, "We have rooms available."

The shouts and whoops that followed lacked proper decorum for her court, but Hydrala paid no heed to them. As a guard led their guests down a corridor, she placed a tentacle on Leonardo's shoulder to draw him apart.

"Please forgive my earlier hastiness concerning your motives," she said, as he looked at her inquisitively. "These are troubled times, and you are not the first strangers to intrude on our ocean paradise."

The terrapin smiled and clasped his hands together as he bowed low before her.

"Your wariness is understandable," he replied. "We, too, have had reason to doubt strangers." A shadow passed over his face.

"You are weary," Hydrala stated.

"Just a little tired."

"That is not the weariness that I refer to." Hydrala attempted to hold his gaze, but he averted his eyes. "Leonardo, I would like to offer you a hospitality few outsiders have ever experienced. Something to help with the weariness you feel."

"Oh?"

"A cleansing technique, as you might call it."

"Cleansing?" Hydrala kept a firm grasp on his shoulder as she led him down another corridor.

"Our race receives peace of mind through such a technique. I believe you would benefit from it as well." She ushered him inside a room well known to the Daagon and paused only when she heard him gasp.

She did not judge him. The room was still for her the loveliest room in her palace. The vast opaque walls danced with the fullness of the cosmos splaying out before them. The floor and frame sparkled with gemstones etched on their surfaces. Rows of large jade stretched out before them, each of them hollowed in their middle like smoothed beds. At each side rested stools and trays bearing clear glass vials and woven reed cloths. Various crystals extended over each jade, as though they had grown there, curving like slender fingers.

She looked down at her guest, not surprised to find Leonardo's awed glance change to uncertainty.

"What is this place?" he asked.

"We know it as our Amending Room. We use it to cleanse the weariness and stress that might inhibit our wellbeing. The crystals emit a sound when touched, releasing deep toxins that affect the body from within. I am certain such an experience would be as beneficial for you as it is among the Daagon."

"Hydrala, this is too kind, but…" She put a stop to his protests by taking his arm.

"There is no pain involved," she reassured him, drawing him to the nearest jade. "The beds are softer than they seem. Feel." She placed his hand against the edge of the bed. His touch left an imprint on the edge that almost instantly faded away. "The crystals do not penetrate the body in any way. They only open the currents in your bloodstream so that the attendants here may draw forth poor energy."

"Chi," she heard him mutter as he looked dubiously at the arching crystals.

"Correct." The word was unfamiliar, but Hydrala saw no reason to lose any ground with the young leader. He wavered between curiosity and uncertainty, and she took advantage of his hesitation. One of the attending Daagon approached them in answer to her nod, and together they began removing Leonardo's gear.

He tried to squirm away from them. "No, really, it's okay. I think I just need a nap…"

"After seeing such bravery displayed today, I would be remiss to offer you anything less," Hydrala insisted, wondering if all earthlings behaved as shyly as this one. She reached for his mask, but Leonardo's hands shot up to stop her.

Nonplussed, Hydrala studied him for a moment. With the weariness was now a sort of fierce distrust that bothered her. She had not counted on having to force him to cleanse. It might be better to let the child have his way after all, and accept that her offer was apology enough for him. However, Hydrala had her heart set on banishing that weary look from Leonardo's eyes. So she raised her chin and spoke her next words in a near whisper.

"To refuse me opportunity to honor such courage would be a great shame to me, and my people, Leonardo. It would be…a great failing to my honor, from which I might never recover."

His suspicion faded. A blush spread across his cheeks as he rubbed his head. "Well, I…"

Hydrala waited patiently. After a moment, the terrapin reached up to remove his mask and hand it to her. She smiled, glad to have calculated right, and accepted the blue cloth. Leonardo remained still this time as she and the attendant removed the rest of his gear.

"It will not keep you from your journey, I promise. If you will but lay here," Hydrala indicated the hollow with a touch of a tentacle, "We will begin immediately."

"We?" His reluctance was still evident in that one word, even as he heaved himself up into the jade and perched uncomfortably on the edge of the hollow.

Hydrala put her tentacles to his shoulders to guide him further down. "This technique is one of my ancestors' design. I normally participate."

Leonardo's brows knit, and he looked up at the crystals looming above him again.

"Do not fear." Hydrala floated to the back of his head and ran a tentacle across his brow. "You will feel warmth to begin with, and then a rush of energy, like water coursing through your blood. There will be no pain. Breathe." The attendant, at her signal, began to tap the crystals. They each sang a note and lit one by one, starting at his feet and working towards his head, emitting silver light over his body. Leonardo gasped and squinted. Hydrala ran her tentacles at his temples.

"It will help to close your eyes," she whispered. "Let the crystals sing to you." He obeyed, though his body shook under the crystals' light.

Eventually, silver lines etched across his body, like thin streams. Those were the channels through which his young energy flowed. The attendant set a bowl of pale algae at Hydrala's side and handed her one of the reed cloths. Taking up the cloth, Hydrala dipped it in the algae and lay it folded across Leonardo's forehead. He frowned for moment, but soon the lines on his face cleared. She set a tentacle against each side of his head and began to rub in a circular motion. Slowly, Hydrala could feel his shaking stop.

Good, good, it was starting to work. He was now resting under the crystals' song. She took a generous amount of the algae and began to rub along his shoulders and arms, wherever the channels indicated flow. The attendant did the same along his legs and waist. Leonardo's breathing hitched and quickened, alerting both Daagons to the channels requiring attention.

Hydrala frowned as she worked. A dark purple color clouded several of the silver streams across his chest and mind; ugly blots that blocked the flow of life. How was it one so young carried so many cares? Try as they would, neither she nor the attendant could massage them away.

"The salted flowers," she instructed the attendant at last. The blue tonic in its sea glass vial was placed in her hand. Hydrala unstopped it with a quick twist at its top and poured a generous amount onto a new cloth. This she ran the cloth over Leonardo's mouth, pausing to let the tonic drip down on his tongue before tossing the cloth aside. So taken was he in the crystals' song that he swallowed the drops without any hesitation.

Hydrala placed a finger lightly against his throat and traced a line down his plastron to the split between his legs and body. The shell made matters difficult for her; the channels were hard to trace here. The Daagon had not made a study of creatures from other worlds, unfortunately.

"What do you suggest?" she asked the attendant.

Her subject considered. "Perhaps half of what we would use for a grown Daagon, Majesty. I don't believe it will harm him."

"We shall try then. Lift his lower limbs for me." The attendant drew up Leonardo's legs at the knee so Hydrala could peer underneath. "Hand me another cloth." This she folded three times before tucking it underneath his lower regions. Then, taking up the vial again, Hydrala poured more onto a smaller hand cloth and used it to massage his inner thighs. He reacted with a sharp intake of breath when she brushed his tail, but the crystals kept him still.

"Now, let him rest a moment as it does its work." Hydrala examined the channels again. The purple was still fierce looking in their twists and turns, not smooth and straight like they should have been.

"As I feared," she said to herself, moving to his head again. She rubbed and stroked the channels of his mind, seeking to release the purple energy there. But though she worked the magic of her people, the channels swayed only some.

"Come, child," she urged the drowsy terrapin. "It is unlike youth to hold on to such pain. Surely your will does not require such a burden."

She bent close to his head, feeling the crystals' light touch her as well. Release, release, she heard them chant. Then, she saw a light catch at the corner of his eye. Frowning, she bent closer to observe as it slipped down his cheek. Another followed from his other eye, and Hydrala caught it against her tentacle.

Tears. She had heard of them, but had never seen one. Tears did not exist among her people, either as a function or a sign of sadness. Hydrala glanced up in time to see several more streaming wet trails down his face.

The darkness along the channels of his mind began to fade.

"Yes," she murmured, more certain now. "That is better. Loosen your hold, Leonardo," she encouraged him.

As if in response, his lips parted for a quick intake of air, ending with a choking sound. The tears rushed faster now, his face writhing in pain.

"Father…" The word started as a gasp, and ended in a cry. He turned suddenly to his side.

"Sensei," he moaned. "Father. Father." He cried.

Hydrala quickly signaled for the attendant to stand back, and together they watched him. The light from the crystals transformed from silver to pale green, igniting their newfound comfort in splashes across his body. The change did not upset him. He cried all the harder for the warmth and safety with which the light bathed him. Hydrala put a comforting tentacle to his shell.

"I was right," she whispered. "This was a duty you so desperately needed.

In the midst of his sobbing, the terrapin retched suddenly. Spasms wracked him, and he twisted in urgency; clear signals that the salted flowers had fulfilled their purpose.

"Shhh." Hydrala put her tentacles to his chest to hold him as another shock caused him to cry out and lurch forward. His body violently rid itself of pungent waste, soiling the towels under his legs.

"Increase the crystals," Hydrala quietly told the startled attendant. The attendant tapped each crystal, sending a warmer golden glow upon the youth and masking the sudden smell. Leonardo's face relaxed yet again as the spasms finally faded. When he had settled again without further trace of distress, Hydrala moved down to his legs once more and lifted them at the ankles while the attendant quickly removed the now soiled cloth from underneath. Together they sponged his legs and thighs with the water, taking care to be thorough. Her own people viewed inner release as a necessary part of their healing, but given Leonardo's earlier bashfulness at being touched, Hydrala knew discretion was wiser.

Once finished, she washed her tentacles in the fountain and studied the channels along his body once again. All were now fully open and clear, all signs of stress and pain vanished. His shaking had ceased, and though tears still stained his face, the force behind them had wearied him into a calm sleep. He lay sleeping fast, lips parted as he breathed; a relaxed child.

Hydrala dipped a new cloth in the water and gently washed away the tear stains. She ran a fond tentacle over the side of his face. What strange ones these terrapins were, to take on evil and trials even at such young ages.

Soon after she silenced the crystals, Leonardo roused from sleep, none the wiser for the details of his cleanse. She bent over him.

"We are finished," Hydrala told him as he blinked up at her. "You did very well. Do you feel better?"

The smile he gave her was wide and sweet. "I…I actually do, your highness."

"Good." She returned the smile. "It is best to lie here for a while. The cleansing tends to confuse one's mind for a time. When you feel ready, one of the others here will guide you to your companions."

Leonardo's eyes were already drooping closed. Hydrala rose, then stooped suddenly to place a kiss on his forehead. Her duty was done, and her heart cleansed.

"Protect your youth," she whispered, "while you still have youth to protect."


End file.
